DR. FELIPE CALIZAYA ACHIEVED A MILESTONE

Dr. Felipe Calizaya joined the University of Utah’s Department of Mining Engineering as an associate professor in January of 2002.

He received his Ph.D. degree in mining engineering from the Colorado School of Mines in 1985. He also received an M.S. degree in mining engineering from the Colorado School of Mines in 1977. He received a Latin American scholarship in 1975. He also received an undergraduate degree in mining engineering from the Bolivian School of Mines in 1972.

He worked as a field engineer in the Bolivian Army Corporation, as a technical advisor at the Bolivian Mining Corporation, as a teaching assistant at the Colorado School of Mines, as a postdoctoral fellow and lecturer at the University of California at Berkeley, and as a research associate at the Mackay School of Mines at the University of Nevada in Reno, Nevada. He later worked for six years as a chief ventilation engineer for Freeport, Indonesia.

He was a member of the MSHA technical study panel in connection with the Federal Mine Improvement in New Engineering Response Act of 2006. He won the College of Mines and Earth Sciences Outstanding Teaching Award in 2009 and again in 2014.He was also awarded a 2019 Alfa Foundation grant for $441,000 to study coal mine pressure balancing in ventilation systems.

He served on numerous committees at the University of Utah as well as professionally through the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration. He was the advisor to many graduate students and a committee member on graduate student committees.

He is a leading expert in mine ventilation. He has been a consultant on several different projects. He is the author or co-author of more than 65 publications. His research has involved studies to examine pressure balancing techniques to control the risk of spontaneous combustion in coal mining operations. He has investigated methods to improve ventilation and ventilation equipment performance. He has worked on mitigating noise from ventilation systems in order to improve the health and safety of miners.

He has taught several courses such as hydraulics, ventilation, mine administration and finance, simulation of discrete systems, mine fire safety, and operations research as a professor at the University of Utah in addition to helping with the department seminars. He has made great contributions to the Department of mining engineering and his service as a faculty member will be missed by students faculty and staff as he retires at the end of June.

We wish him the very best of success and fulfillment in his retirement.